67 yellow on 68?????

[John L.]

I recently brought my 68 BB to a restoration shop to have the body restored. My body build date is: 10/25/67. Trim paint code is: 984. Now the crazy part. When we looked at the 68 Safari Yellow (code 984) paint chip and matched it against the overspray located on an inner door panel, it looked darker. My painter stated it had more black in it. When we matched the 67 Sunfire Yellow (code 984) paint chip to the overspray, it was a perfect match. My painter, his wife and I all agreed that the color matched better than the Safari chip. Some people are going to say the color may have faded, or the paint chip color is off, however upon close inspection one can see the difference in pigment. Is it possible that GM used up their last batch of Sunfire paint on a 68 year car? Does anyone out there have an eariler build date 68 that has the actual Safari yellow on it? I want to do an accurate restoration and plan on using the Sunfire color however my painter feels I'll lose judging points. Any thoughts on this discrepancy would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, John L..............

[Terry F.]

Re: 67 yellow on 68?????

I would personally leave it the 67 color. I would document what you are seeing in any way possible (pictures, letter from the painter, etc). I would take it to a good paint store and have them make a comparison with a color analyzer and then compare it to the paint code to 67 and 68 corvette. You have possibly come across something that is unique your early car. I would try to keep it that way. Just my opinion though. Terry

[mike cobine]

Re: 67 yellow on 68?????

You need to determine the car's history and the possibility that it may have been repainted sometime in the past. If you are satisfied that this paint you are checking is original and never repainted, I would go with it.

However, Corvettes have been being restored body-off for 30 years or so on the average. As such, some restorations are older than the original condition ever got to be, i.e., restored at age 15, currently 37 years old and 22 years on restoration. So just because it looks old does not mean it is original.

It is a problem that is being seem more and more now as the restorations get older.

Paint under the door panel could be repainted. Paint under the dash is more likely to be original than inner door panel paint.

[Dick W.]

Re: 67 yellow on 68?????

Current day paint chips are not paint, they are ink colors. They are just an indicator of the approximate color. To rely on a chip as to the correct color could possibly give you an erreneous comparison.

[Mike M.]

Re: 67 yellow on 68?????

Your '67 theory might hold if your car was built on the first day or first week of production. Around #5600 is a real stretch.
Even though the codes are the same the formulae are not. My inclination is that the car has been repainted with a 984 code, however, the person who provided the paint mistakenly picked the wrong formula for the earlier year.
Case in point, some of the closest repaint matches I have seen on the judging field for '67 Marlboro Maroon have unfortunately been on '66 Vettes, two of them, on different occasions. Why? I suspect that with the Maroon paint codes for both '66 and'67 being 988 that the person attempting to match the '66 paint looked in the book for the 988 code, which happened to be for the '67 and mixed that formula.
Good luck, Enjoy your Vette!
H. a. N. D.

[John L.]

Re: 67 yellow on 68?????

Thanks for all your replies. I will follow the advice that Terry gave. My 68 was repainted however the color was a dark blue. The car was in poor condition, (was a daily driver) so it wasn't restored. I asked if there were any other eariler yellow 68 because there maybe a possiblity that the 67 color was used on the first cars ordered in yellow. The 67 Sunfire over spray was found on the inside of the vehicle (floor, inner door panels, rear deck area). Areas where nobody would spend time to strip. On some areas the original red primer is under the yellow. I will further test the paint and post my findings in the future.

John L................